Have you ever walked by a building in the city and thought, wow, I wonder what that’s like inside? Well, the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco is one of those buildings. And last Thursday I got the chance to explore four floors of it with its opening of the “Video Game Art Show” and “Into the Pixel”. Check out the rest of the post for more of what I found…

After climbing the stairs past a rather menacing life-sized wall decal of soldiers, I reached the lobby, where the “Into the Pixel” show began. The first room may have been my favorite, where guests were greeted by a huge and amazingly-detailed statue. Apparently he didn’t bother the man serving wine right next to him, though.The remainder of the second floor had huge wall decals made from the “Into the Pixel” winning pieces. I can’t say I loved the decal look, but there were some amazing pieces of art. And considering that most of them were created digitally anyway, I suppose a wall decal could be a fitting medium for them.

What was fun, was to see the artwork behind the video games – the basis for those scenes you usually end up running past, seeing on the screen for 2 seconds, or just never get a good look at because you’re focused on the enemy you’re struggling to kill. But it’s what sucks you into that game environment, and it was nice to be able to take a longer look at the attention these people put into their art.

The hallways were pretty narrow, but there was art everywhere, leading you from floor to floor, and wandering down the halls to the rooms where Super7 and 3 Fish Studios had their pop-up shops (in the Tricia Choi and Shepard Fairey rooms, respectively). Especially worth checking out are Super7′s 2-foot tall Stormtrooper and 3 Fish Studios’ linocut prints of video game controllers made for this event.

Giant Robot, Gallery 1988, and Project One had loaned out art pieces as well, which were some of my favorites. Giant Robot opened their “Game Over III” show the following night, which included some of the pieces they had here. Based on their selection, the “Game Over III” show definitely looks worth checking out.

San FranPsycho had taken over the Maya Hayuk room and not only had their wares for sale, but were live screen-printing for anyone who brought a shirt. They had a variety of screens to choose from, including a design they’d created just for the show. They printed on my white t-shirt in black, with silver foil on the keyboard.

The fourth floor was dedicated to art from the making of EA’s Dante’s Inferno. What I liked about this showing was how they had the original art printed on canvas, next to the publicity shots (one for each sin) printed on wall decals. It made me realize how much detail we take for granted when something’s presented to us commercially.

The show is up at the Hotel des Arts through April, and although you won’t be able to experience one of my favorite parts – seeing the painted rooms – you are able to wander the halls of art. It’s such an interesting experience to be immersed into this world of video game art but standing in a restored 1909 hotel. Just be careful on those stairs if you’ve got big feet like I do – they’re curving and tiny!